• COMMENT DOVER GO-SLOW
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• It is not the place, nor the intent, of Commercial Motor to comment on the rights or wrongs of workers' pay claims outside the road transport sector. It is, however, our duty to comment on the sort of disruption which results from such claims when it is as serious as that which has resulted from the customs action at Dover.
The customs officers, like other civil servants, may well believe that they have a valid claim against the government as their employer. What they do not have is a valid reason for disrupting the businesses of people who are not involved in their dispute in any way, The lines of trucks waiting for clearance do not represent legitimate ammunition for civil servants in pursuit of their aims — they do represent hundreds of thousands of pounds worth of lost revenue for a road haulage industry on which this country depends for its very existence.
It is of no consolation to road hauliers that other sectors of the transport industry might also be hit by this work to rule. When goods in transit are held up, everybody involved in their production, distribution or sale loses out. the customs officers, by their targetting of vital economic transport rather than, say, private travel, have shown a contempt for the country's industry. That they have done nothing to enhance their already blighted reputation in the haulage industry in so doing is a matter for regret.